The present invention relates to a personal device for facilitating the turning/transferring of pages and, more particularly, to a personal device which enables handicapped persons who permanently or temporarily lack the manual motor dexterity required for turning pages of a book, to perform such a function, as well as other functions related to handling of pages, such as sorting, linking and transferring of pages from one place to another.
Turning pages of a book is a trivial and daily function for a capable person, but nevertheless requires dexterous motor capability of the hand and fingers. However, lack of such motor capability is expressed in individuals who suffer from disability of their fingers, hand, forearm or entire arm owing to: amputation of fingers/hand/forearm; neural injury to the brain or spinal cord; muscular impairment or paralysis; inflammation; burns; and other reasons. The psychological consequences of such incapacity may be very damaging to the rehabilitation process of these handicapped persons, who are totally dependent on the assistance of another person for carrying out this kind of activity.
Various attempts have been made to develop a device which enables such handicapped persons to independently turn the pages of a book, magazine, and the like. Prior art includes a variety of automatic and manual devices. Examples of automatic page turners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,644; 4,553,467; 4,644,675; 4,685,374; 4,719,712; and 4,780,977.
However, most of these devices are not in frequent use for the following reasons: most of them are large and heavy, complex and difficult to handle, and expensive; the disabled person is completely dependent on the assistance of another person in order to carry, set, and disassemble the device; the mobility of these devices is very limited, narrowing their usage to the immediate home environment of the disabled person; most of the devices are operated by pushing a button, thus remaining the user passive, not practicing much of the motor functions he is capable of. This has negative consequences on the rehabilitation process of such a person, due to psychological effects such as damage to his self esteem, and physical effects such as atrophy of unexercised muscles.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a personal device for turning pages of a book, magazine, newspaper, etc., which is compact, portable and easy to handle; which enables ready and independent use by the handicapped person; and which is beneficial to the rehabilitation process of the user in terms of psychological and physical effects.
It would be further advantageous to have such a device, which allows the handicapped user to perform other functions related to paper handling, such as transferring, sorting and linking of pages.